An artist and architect from Singapore has her collection ‘Summer in Winter’ on display in a Kentish Town vestibule-turned-art gallery until the end of January.
Jolene Liam is a London-based artist who believes that the spaces we live in and the objects we collect reveal much about us and aims to bring colour to the dark winter months with this exhibition held in an atypical gallery—a display window where the art can be observed by any passerby.
The exhibition revolves around exploring new places and rediscovering familiar ones through colourful oil pastel drawings done from observation and recent monotypes of imagined landscapes that embrace happy accidents in their making, mixing observation with imagination.
Liam said: “We wanted to bring a bit of sunshine back onto the street when everything’s a bit cold and dark.
“It is about the different ways in which we experience spaces not just visually but also sort of from a physical point of view or an emotional point of view.”
Some of the works show places in Singapore and others are of London including Hampstead Heath- a happy place for Liam during the COVID-19 lockdown.
JJ Campbell, a cameraman and founder of Spring Up Art Gallery in 2021, a non-profit community art space whose aim is to show local artists’ works that haven’t been shown to the public before.
The 69-year-old Kentish Town resident started taking photos in 2000 and has previously had his own work on display.
He said: “She’s an explorer, an adventurer and as she digs into things, you’ll find more and more and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
“There’s been so many great comments from children to mums to the road sweepers.”
Liam added: “Something that’s been quite nice about this is that it is not a gallery space that you can walk into but it’s a window that everyone can look into and that’s been really encouraging.
“I hope I get to keep trying out new stuff and embracing not being able to control every aspect of the drawing, that’s been something new that I’ve been trying to get used to.”
Liam’s drawings were featured in issues of the RIBA Journal and her work has been exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition, the Royal Watercolour Society Open and the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.
She has been shortlisted for multiple awards such as the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Art Gemini Prize, World Illustration Awards, Art Edit Self-Represented Artist Award and Royal Institute of British Architects’ Eye Line Drawing Competition.
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